Category: Award

MEC 2022 Student Podium Presentation Competition award winners: Connor Olsen (Left) First Place, and Monika Buczak (right) second place, with their professor Jacob A. George in the center

MEC Student Presentation Award Winners: Monika Buczak and Connor Olsen

 

Congratulations to Monika Buczak and Connor Olsen for their recent awards at the Myoelectric Controls Symposium (MEC) held in Fredericton, New Brunswick. The conference occurs every three years, and part of the conference includes the Student Podium Presentation Competition. This year, our lab walked away with both first and second place! Monika Buczak was awarded 2nd place for her presentation, Disentangling Sensory and Motor Deficits of Fine Hand Function Using An Electronic Grip Gauge (EGG) to Simulate Transferring Fragile Objects. Connor Olsen was awarded 1st place for his presentation, An Inexpensive and Adaptable Prosthetic Wrist Improves Dexterity and Reduces Compensatory Movements.

Our lab was well represented at MEC22, and we are immensely proud of all the presentations given. Find the conference proceedings here.

Dr. George featured in “Neuroscience Faculty Spotlight”

Dr. George was recently featured the "Neuroscience Faculty Spotlight" for his lab's interdisciplinary neuroscience research at the University of Utah. The Neuroscience Initiative at University of Utah Health represents a commitment, by the University of Utah and the Senior Vice President for Health Sciences office, to unify basic, translational, and clinical research efforts towards a better understanding of the brain in disease and health. This vision is currently being accomplished by linking clinicians, scientists, and the broader neuroscience community at University of Utah Health. Our neuroscience research community, ranging from neurologists to imaging specialist to molecular biologists (>150 investigators) spans across 7 colleges and schools, 15 centers and institutes, and more than 32 departments. Dr. George was recently featured as a key faculty member of the Neuroscience Initiative. Check out the article to learn more about Dr. George's background and ongoing neuroscience research!

 

Dr. George featured in TED-style talk to U-Health donors

In 2019, Dr. George and fellow researchers at the U made waves with the "LUKE Arm" (named after the robotic hand given to Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back), a prosthetic arm that has the ability to feel objects by transmitting the appropriate signals to the brain. Not only can the arm feel, but it can be controlled by the user's thoughts. In this 2021 TED-style talk, Dr. George talks about the advances that have taken place since the their breakthrough was first announced.

Dr. George Featured in Forbes 30 Under 30

Dr. Jacob A. George, director of the Utah NeuroRobotics Lab, was named one of Forbes’ “30 Under 30” in the Science category for 2022. For 10 years, the finance magazine has named 30 young innovators, entertainers and others each in a variety of categories from art and design to games, media and sports. These are considered by the editors to be the ones to watch out for in their respective fields. Past honorees have included Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, singer and entrepreneur Rihanna, and the co-founders of such companies as Instagram, Dropbox and Pinterest. Click here to see the list of the 2022 honorees in the Science category.

NeuroRobotics Lab Awarded NVIDIA Jetson Nanos!

Dr. George was recently awarded a grant from NVIDIA to supply Jetson Nanos for the NeuroRobotics course! A Jetson Nano is a small, powerful computer (similar to a Raspberry Pi) with an embedded GPU to run multiple neural networks in parallel for applications like image classification, object detection, segmentation, and speech processing. It's an easy-to-use platform that runs in as little as 5 watts. These new modules will allow for a variety of deployable AI models for decoding biological signals (to control bionic devices by thought) and encoding neural stimulation (to provide haptic feedback or to animate limbs). Read more about the award here.

Dr. George awarded the 2021 ACTS Outstanding Trainee: Post-Doctoral Award

Dr. George was awarded the 2021 ACTS Outstanding Trainee: Post-Doctoral Award. This award recognizes those whose translational research progress will have either immediate impact or potential to impact policy, care or public health in the short term. The award is sponsored by Translational Science 2021, the joint annual meeting of the Association for Clinical and Translational Science (ACTS), co-supported by the American Federation for Medical Research (AFMR), Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the PhRMA Foundation and Clinical Research Forum.

Dr. George awarded NIH Director’s Early Independence Award

Dr. George was awarded the NIH Director's Early Independence Award. Part of the NIH’s High-Risk, High-Reward Research program, the Director’s Early Independence Award supports exceptional junior scientists who have recently received their doctoral degree or completed their medical residency to skip traditional post-doctoral training and move immediately into independent research positions. George is one of 13 in the nation who have received this year’s award. He is the first awardee from the University of Utah since the award was established in 2011 and the first awardee in the field of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation. George’s award provides $1.8 million over five years to develop thought-controlled bionic exoskeletons to assist and rehabilitate stroke patients. Read more here.